Welcome to Walking it Out

I am someone who can’t sit still for extended periods of time. Ask my parents and they’ll be happy to tell everyone how I used to run through the house on loop - it drove them nuts. Prior to the lockdown and quarantine, I would often go hiking or to the gym to walk for about an hour or so. It helped to get out all my pent up energy.

Even while I’m working in an office, I can find ways to move around without causing too much disruption. Taking a quick walk around the office parking lot helped me cool down and collect my thoughts...especially if it was a really stressful day.

Now that I’m stuck working from home all the time, I try to take a walk at least once or twice a day (no matter the weather). It gets me out of the apartment and, though I keep my distance, gives me an opportunity to say high to the people in my area. Once the quarantine is over, I plan on petting all the dogs I pass on my walk as well.

To get ready for a walk, I quickly check the weather, grab a face mask, and select a fun music playlist to listen too. Thankfully, there are a lot of paths for me to chose from and my walk doesn’t have to be the same each time.

A view of DC on one of my walks.

One of my friends recently mentioned how they miss their commute from work as it was a nice opportunity for them to decompress from the stressful day. I suggested taking a walk in place of driving - at least around the block - after finishing work to make it appear that they were commuting home. I’ve incorporated this routine into my evenings and it’s helped a lot.

Walks not only help me relax, they also help keep me healthy. When I got for a walk, I might be gone for as little as 15 minutes to over an hour. The terrain is hilly and allows for different levels of difficulty. They get my heart rate up and keeps me active.

On days when it’s too rainy for me to go outside twice a day, I do yoga in my living room. There are some great programs to stream, but I prefer listening to my body and doing my own workout. I do miss going outside when the weather is bad, but as is said in the movie The Crow: “it cant rain all the time”.

But when the sun is out and the birds are singing, it’s wonderful taking a walk. The sun provides vitamin D and being around plants makes me happy in general (probably why I’ve started a balcony garden now that I have a balcony). Everything is so green right now and the flowers have been blooming nonstop since mid-March.

A flower I’ve found on a walk.

Often on my walks I’ll come across chalk drawings and messages - little reminders that we’re all in this together. I don’t know if the messages are one person or a group of people, but every few days there are new ones to replace the faded old ones. Hearts and hopscotch games are also common to see.

Some people have placed messages in their windows or hung from their balconies in support of doctors, nurses, and critical workers. They’re nice to see and I often find myself smiling when I spot a new one.

If you are able to, see about taking a walk. Remember to wear a face mask and sun protection. Keep your distance from other people.

And enjoy the time you have.

Stay safe everyone.

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Until next week.

Welcome to an Arts Micro-Vacation

This weekend I spent in New York City. I don’t usually spend a full weekend in the city, especially not in the summer months because of the heat and even worse humidity. It’s often crowded and space, as rare as it normally is, becomes nearly impossible to find.

But really, that’s New York in a nutshell.

So, why did I choose to spend a weekend wandering around a city that I typically avoid during the burger of tourist season?

I decided to take the opportunity to see a couple of plays. I got tickets to see To Kill a Mockingbird months ago (because any sooner was near impossible in my price range). Then, about two weeks ago I saw that Tom Hiddleston and Charlie Cox would be in the play, Betrayal, on Broadway. It was an opportunity I didn’t want to waste.

I felt it was too hard to do my usual commute back and forth into the city, so I opted to just stay the night. I call it a micro-vacation.

The plays were only part of the trip. I now had ample free time to do a few other things - like eat in Hell’s Kitchen (Maria Pia is one of my favorite restaurants in that area), see some of new exhibits at The Met, and enjoy my wanders around the many parks (Central being my favorite).

It’s calm and peaceful and everything is set to my pace.

This also isn’t the first micro-vacation I’ve taken this month (last weekend I was in Hershey with a friend). They’re a nice indulgence when I can’t get far away from home for a long period of time.

This trip has been centered around the Arts. The Art of the Stage Production, The Art of Fashion (The Met has a really cool exhibit on Camp right now that was really cool and informative on the history of LGBTQ+ culture), The Art of Food, and The Art of Adaptation.

I don't think that last art gets as much attention as many of the others. Adaptation takes an already created work and transforms it. In this case, I'm referring to the play To Kill a Mockingbird.

My introduction to the story was like many American high schoolers, by reading the novel for English Lit. class. I think it says something about the books that they were making us read that I still think of it as the "happiest" book we read that year. To be clear, this book is not "happy" in the slightest, just happier than everything else we read in 9th grade.

It wasn't that much later that I saw the movie with Gregory Peck as the too prefect for this world Atticus Finch. Both the book and the movie are excellent. The movie definitely does the book justice, though I recall it leaves a number of scenes out.

The play has a very different structure from the book and movie, but this is an adaptation that I think does both justice in a time where a few updates needed to be made. Jeff Daniels is excellent as Atticus Finch, showing both his strengths and deep flaws as a white man living in the south during the 1930s. He even gets called out several times on his actions by the family's black house keeper, Calpurnia, which I don't remember happening in the movie or the book.

I thought the updates were needed and I found myself frustrated by Atticus, more forgiving of Jem, and enjoying the non-linear story telling.

Which brings me to the other play I saw. I went into the play Betrayal only knowing that it was a play about an affair told in reverse, also Tom Hiddleston and Charlie Cox were in it. I enjoyed the acting and the story, but I didn't understand at all why two of the characters started having an affair (even at the end when it showed how the affair started).

I won't spoil the story, but I admit I had a hard time relating to the characters. The only character I somewhat sympathized with was Tom Hiddleston's Robert, though I might have also sympathized with Zawe Ashton's character, Emma, with a few more scenes providing context to some of her claims.

Charlie Cox's character, Jerry, was just an all around clueless B@$%@#d.

I think the coolest part of the play was how time was portrayed. They had a circular revolving stage (one ring on the inside and another on the outside) with only two chairs, and later a table, as the set. As time moved backward the circles would turn and there would be a projection of how far back in time we had gone in the story. There was also a lot of excellent shadow play with light projections and use of the circles to show how all of the characters orbited around each other.

My final thoughts on the weekend are from while I was at The Met. I got to see the incomplete masterpiece of St. Jerome by Leonardo Da Vinci, which was cool, a very cool presentation of music and visual landscape of Iceland called "Death is Elsewhere" which was projected on screens surrounding the viewers, and an exhibit on Camp.

I honestly knew nothing about Camp before I went into the exhibit. It's history and evolution are closely tied to the history of (mostly male)  LGBTQ+ culture. It's an Art of Fashion and Self Expression. Though I don't think I could pull off any of the looks, I was fascinated by everything I saw.

It was a fun weekend and I experienced a lot. I'd recommend any of the plays I saw and the exhibits at the Met. Also Hell's Kitchen is a must for people who like good food.

Until next week.

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Welcome to Packing For a Trip

I wish I had enough time and money to travel the world. I would love to say that I've been on every continent. If I had thought about it, I would have tried to travel more when I was still a student. Unfortunately I didn't. Now that I'm no longer a student, it's harder to find the time (and sometimes money) for travel. Most of my traveling time is used to go to visit family (or moving because I've been doing a lot of that too). I've also traveled for work, which carry an entirely different set of rules than when traveling for fun.

I prefer to travel by car. Though long road trips can be taxing, I can pack everything I need. I don't have to worry too much about what I pack (as long as I remember a change of socks that is) and I have plenty of room to fit all my luggage.

If I can't travel by car, then I usually go by train or plane. I like taking the train for short trips. There really isn't a lot of room for big bags unless you are going from one of the big stations, but it's a lot more relaxing and I can read while the train takes me to my destination. I traveled a lot by train when I lived in Maryland. It was convient. I've even taken the train from Washington D.C. to New Orleans. It took 13 hours and I hardly got any sleep, but it was so much fun.

Traveling by plane is probably my least favorite (I'm not talking about boats or ships today because I haven't taken many to far away places). There're a lot of hoops to jump through and it's very expensive. Packing for a plane trip is also a pain. I don't like checking bags because of the fees and horror stories about loosing luggage. It's always a risk that the flight will loose a bag, even if it's not actually that big of one.

Packing can be the biggest challenge of any trip. I usually make a check list for each day of what I will wear and then add one or two more shirts, an extra pair of socks, and a few other pieces of clothing just to be safe. I never know when I might have a fashion emergency. If I can get away with not having toiletries, I don't bring any with me.

If I'm traveling for work, I make sure I have very nice cloths (even while en route to my destination). I keep my laptop in an easy to get to location and I try to arrive early. Going to visit family is easy because they usually have anything I might forget at home (sorry mom but it's true). Though holiday travel can be difficult with how crazy everying is.

Traveling for pleasure is very different. I have a very long check list of things I need to bring with extra space in my bag for souvenirs and gifts I buy along the way. I can't forget anything because it'll be expensive to replace (like chargers or shampoo) or I have to do without entirely (my glasses for instance). If I'm traveling by plane I need to make sure I don't have any banned items and to remember to check in 24 hours in advance.

The list seems endless.

My mom just might be the master at packing bags for flying though. I don't know how she did it, but my sister, mom, and I lived out of one bag a couple of times. It was so we have an extra bag free for he things we brought on the road.

Traveling is expensive, but I'm always happy when I can. Whether to reconnect with family or explore a new place, I find I have a good time. Sometimes I learn new things, other times I'm just there to relax.

Until next week and may the wind always be at your back.

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Welcome To Down Time

I didn't realize until yesterday just how busy I've been. Work has been crazy. Typically I have some energy when I get home from work, but lately I've come home and just crashed on my couch. I  still try to go to the pool when the weather is nice and get a quick swim in, but that's all I really do. Making dinner has even been a chore. I've also had pretty full weekends with Bronycon, my family reunion and visiting my parents (cough* doing laundry *cough) and a few friends.

On Friday I was very stressed out and tense. I also had nothing to distract me. It was not the best way to start out the weekend.

Then, yesterday I woke up and realized I didn't have any plans. Well I had had plans with my anime club, but they were canceled because of the rain. I spent the morning watching cartoon (seriously who didn't see that coming), until a humongous spider crept out on to my living room floor. If you didn't  see my Facebook post, I somehow got myself to kill the unfortunate guy. It was terrifying.

I was so traumatized I went on a huge cleaning spree, though if my sister walked in right now she'd complain about how messy my place is. I have a few places I still need to dist and disinfect, but overall I think my place is pretty nice looking. That will probably change tomorrow. It was kind of nice not having any plans. I divided half way through cleaning that I wanted Mac and Cheese, so I went out in the pouring rain to Noodles and Company and then the library for some more manga.

Today I went to church, which was nice. I went shopping for a few things I needed. Spent a ton of time by the pool. It was finally bright, sunny and warm (good bye polar vortex, hello fall). I also made chicken surprise soup. Cooking is a wonderful thing to do when you have free time.

The best part is I feel great. I'm not feeling anxious or stressed out anymore. I fell like I've accomplished something without doinig all that much. Heck I even brought the first Season of Duck Tails (I blame the Nostalgia Critic). I think I really needed to do well nothing. It allowed for me to recharge like I haven't in a while.

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Also here's a random picture for Facebook.